Hybrids
by LunaRowena
Summary: "Hey, we half-monk, half-Aedyrans have to stick together."


Pillars Prompts Weekly #0054: Versatility

Strange birds sung out in the morning on Maje Island. Well, strange to her, Amaryllis admitted to herself. They were perfectly normal birds for this area of the world she assumed. The morning light streamed over the trees, casting long shadows. The air still cool, it was the perfect time to get sparring in before it got too hot. She ducked a kick from Xoti and responded with one of her own.

They had started the routine a few days ago, when Amaryllis woke up to do her morning exercises and found Xoti awake as well.

"Don't sleep too well," she had said. "The dreams."

Amaryllis understood how that felt. In an effort to distract Xoti from her disturbing dreams, she had suggested unarmed sparring. They could talk if they wanted to, but they didn't have to. Xoti seemed to appreciate the distraction for the first two days, but after falling into the routine she was much more lively today.

Xoti blocked the kick and the follow up punch and responded with a round kick that hit Amaryllis in the shoulder and threw her off balance. She landed on the ground.

"Point to you." Amaryllis rubbed her shoulder.

"Thanks." Xoti offered her a hand up while not so subtly glancing over at where Edér was stoking the morning fire to see if he had been watching.

He was smoking a pipe and staring out into the jungle, contemplatively. Aloth still slept in the nearby pitched tent.

Amaryllis grabbed the offered hand and Xoti pulled her to her feet. "Time for a water break?" Amaryllis asked, inclining her head back towards camp.

Xoti slightly reddened but nodded and the two women headed over to the fire circle where Amaryllis pulled out the water skins.

Amaryllis gulped the water down greedily, droplets running down the side of her face onto her damp shirt. She took a deep breath and wiped her mouth. "So, Xoti, I've been meaning to ask, where did you learn to fight?" She hadn't honestly expected Xoti to know much about unarmed combat since she normally fought with her sickle, shield, and, well, magic, but Xoti was trained. It was a slightly different style than Amaryllis's, but Xoti had learned hand-to-hand combat somewhere.

Xoti wiped a damp cloth over her forehead and shook out her hair. Edér was still ignoring them for the fire. She rolled her eyes at his back and turned to Amaryllis as she spoke. "One of the Eothasian priests back home. More of a monk, really. Used to give lessons to all the boys. And me."

"You were that insistent?"

Xoti shrugged. "I mostly just wanted to talk theology, but he got frustrated at that and I got good at ducking. And then I got frustrated at his ideas and I got good at kicking." She grinned. "Ain't had much practice in years. I know I ain't very good."

Amaryllis rubbed her shoulder ruefully. "If you're not very good then my pride's taking quite a beating."

Xoti laughed. "That's the first good hit I've had on you in three days." She took a swig of water. "Where'd you learn to fight? I always thought of ciphers as the sneaky, stabby kind, not the punchy, kicky kind."

"As far as I can tell there aren't any weapon limitations on being a cipher, but I haven't known many others." Amaryllis leaned up against a tree. "But my mother was a Glamfellen monk."

"Was?" Xoti clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry!"

"You're fine." Amaryllis grinned. "She's still alive. Just no longer a monk. Some dashing, Aedyran, Sceltrfolc explorer came down to the White that Wends and whisked her away up to the Living Lands where they've been for the oh, last sixty years or so. Wait, I'm sixty-three now. Seventy years? Anyway," she took another drink of water, "my father is a semi-well known explorer, Brandford Alfwyn. It was strange reading his books in University. He was on an expedition down to the Wend when he met my mother and the way they tell it it was love at first sight. And that he's also not the most popular down there now."

Xoti's eyes twinkled with laughter. "That why they spent seventy years up North?"

"Some of it. The rest of it, they just like it up there. My father says it's the most interesting place he's ever been. 'You can spend fifty years exploring the same area and it's always different.' And they have."

Xoti cocked her head to the side. "So your pa's from Aedyr and you're ma's Glafel-, Glamelefel-, Glamflafl–"

"Glamfellen." Aloth ducked out of the tent. He smiled faintly. "Or 'pale elf' if you prefer."

Edér blew out a long puff of smoke. "I already put some hot water on. For your tea," he responded to Aloth's blank look.

"Oh," Aloth looked surprised. "Thank you."

"It ain't been so long that I don't remember you drink tea in the morning, 'Engfirth.'" He chucked at his own joke.

"Yes, well–" Aloth turned and busied himself making tea.

"So," Xoti continued, "your ma's a pale elf and your pa's a–"

"Wood elf," Amaryllis supplied. "Like Aloth."

"–wood elf, but you look like a pale elf? Sorry, tell me if I'm running my mouth, but, y'see, in my case, my pa's an Aedyran settler and my ma's Natlan and I look more like her, darker like, and so do most folk I know with one Natlan parent. So shouldn't you look more like your pa?"

"So," Amaryllis said, "that would usually be true, but there's a rumor's going back in my father's family of having Glamfellan ancestors–'Alfwyn' means 'white elf,' as a loose translation–and I'm somewhat living proof of that hypothesis."

"It is too early in the morning for a conversation about recessive genetics," Aloth grumbled, sitting down next to Edér, who had started to pay attention to the conversation.

"What-ive what?" Xoti asked.

Aloth blew steam off the top of his tea and sighed. "So generally you're correct in that darker hair, skin, eye color is what gets passed on due to being the dominant phenotype–" noticing Xoti's eyes glazing over at the terminology, he stopped and placed his pointer finger to his forehead, thinking. "Edér, are both your parents blond?"

"Nope." Edér chewed on the end of his pipe. "My ma's blond but my pa's got brown hair. But my Grandpa Teylecg was supposed to be blond back in the day."

"Right. So since Edér's father was a heterogeneous carrier," he stopped himself. "Edér's father may have had darker hair, but since he had someone back in his family tree that was also blond, he had a chance to have blond children with someone who was blond or who also had blond ancestors. So since Amaryllis's father's family had pale elves in their ancestry, apparently, the 'pale elf genes' were passed down. Other children her parents may have had have a chance to look more like her father."

"But I'm an only child," Amaryllis shrugged.

"Basically, recessive genetics–in our conversation people with lighter features–can be expressed if somewhere in their line there were people with those lighter features. In your case, if you were to have children with a Thyrtan, your children each have a fifty percent chance of looking like you and your mother and a fifty percent chance of looking like your father and partner. Does that make sense?" Aloth took a sip of tea, testing the temperature of the liquid.

"So," Xoti's eyes twinkled mischievously, "if you and Amaryllis was to have kids–"

Aloth choked on his tea.

"–they would look like you because you probably don't got pale elves in your family tree?"

Amaryllis couldn't help but laugh at Aloth's expression. "Yes, Xoti, that's correct."

Edér elbowed Aloth in the ribs, spilling some of the tea in the process. "So can I be the godfather of your future children?"

"There's not going to be future children!" Aloth sputtered, flicking droplets of tea off his fingers.

"I don't know." Edér shrugged. "I want to see a horde of mini-Aloths. They'd all use such big words. And set everything on fire."

"Magical ability is usually hereditary, yes, but–" Aloth shook his head. "Why are we having this conversation? Weren't you all doing things before I woke up?"

Xoti turned to Amaryllis, who was doubled over laughing. "Oh, is he not your boyfriend?"

Aloth sputtered some high-pitched nonsense words and turned red. He took a long drink of tea.

Amaryllis took some deep breaths before she was able to reply. "No, Xoti, Aloth and I are not… he's not my boyfriend."

"Oh. Just the way you look at him, I thought–"

Aloth choked on his tea again.

"Why don't we get back to practicing and leave Aloth alone?" said Amaryllis hastily. "Wouldn't want to get out of shape."

"I think your 'out of shape' is my 'in shape,'" joked Xoti. "Don't know why you put up with my flailing."

"Hey, we half-monk, half-Aedyrans have to stick together," said Amaryllis.

"Just don't beat each other up too much," said Edér. "Leave some energy for whatever we run into on the road."

Amaryllis and Xoti paced back to the circle they had scratched for sparring. "Isn't that what you're for, Edér? Blocking all the damage?"

"Nah, Aloth'll blast them all first."

"Ready, Xoti? Three, two, one–" and practice resumed.


End file.
